Kat's Cambridge Catch Up #12

November was another month of firsts. It was such an amazing month!!! Hope you enjoy reading about it!

- Happy Cirque-versary -

The 1st of November marked my first anniversary at Cambridge Community Circus. As you might have gathered from my blog posts and social media posts, my life has been turned upside down (literally!) when I found the circus. And I've been loving it ever since! On the same night, I taught my first ever trapeze class by myself! I've been slowly getting trained to get up to this point. I still have lots to learn as a teacher but it's been so much fun. I think I've taught a couple more classes since then as well. The challenges of teaching is trying to explain clearly how to do the movement, making sure the students are safe on the trapeze and making sure everyone feels like they are having some kind of success and that they feel good giving it a go.

Some other quick circus firsts:

• I did a back hang on the trapeze 
• I tried the Spanish web (spinning rope)
• I did a single toe hang on the trapeze
• I had a man sit on me as I pretended to be a chair on the trapeze

- Don't Wanna Be An American Idiot -

Earlier this year, I was gutted to learn that American Idiot (one of my favourite albums of my youth) was adapted to a West End musical and I missed out on seeing it in London. Luckily, students of Robinson College's Brickhouse Theatre Company, made their own version of the musical. It was such a joy to watch! The performers sang and danced to all of the songs from the album to a live band. Everyone did such an amazing job!

- Sick Sick Sick -

I honestly can't get a break from this being sick business! As I'm writing this, I am sick! So after getting better from my crazy flu/cold thing from before the CCC Autumn show, I started getting spots on my hands and a really sore throat. I was out of action for a little while as it got worse. I couldn't use my hands properly, my feet were tender and my throat felt like burning razor blades. So the only good thing I could do ... was to pass it on to my husband. Poor thing, I hated seeing him go through what I did. Eventually it went away but it was horrible coupe of weeks!

Yikes... so sore!

- Ribbon Work -

Once I kind of recovered from that infection, I did a workshop in flexibility and rhythmic gymnastics. We practised handstands (not good at them) and bridges (slightly better at them). Then tried doing bridges from standing which was terrifying! And I also couldn't do them haha. We played with from ribbon work. It was technical and fun, learning how to twirl the ribbon in different ways and trying to move through it. 

- Milton Keynes -

I had a shopping weekend with Beekee at a big shopping centre at Milton Keynes, about an hour out of Cambridge. I bought some Christmas presents and some fun things for me. Here's a blog post of my haul.

- Mermaid Hair Again -

So I didn't last very long after chopping off my blue hair to get it coloured again. Now my ends are a greeny-blue in more of a streaks pattern at the ends instead of an ombre as I didn't want all of my ends bleached this time. And hopefully this means less split ends! I love the colour though!!!! Thanks to Ashley and Jodi at Salon 262 for this creation and the many test strands they had to do to get it work!

- Auditions & Dancing Dreams -

This was probably my most memorable achievement of the month. In the middle of my week of sickness, I went for my first dance audition! This was a big thing for me as at 28, and been a casual dancer for as long as I can remember, I never auditioned for anything before. I was so nervous as I hadn't been able to move for a few days beforehand and my feet were still a little tingly from my infection. I had no idea how my body would react to the sudden burst of movement. Turns out not too well. But I carried on! I auditioned in three styles, 1 minute dance of jazz, lyrical and contemporary. 

I was successful in my audition for a show called 24 Hour Dance. The idea behind this was that the performers are told of the theme and their music 24 hours before the actual performance. An exciting challenge! I was so excited when I found out what song I was going to be dancing to - a classic! The show was at the late time of 11pm so I spent the day at work, then 10 minutes at the tech rehearsal. I went home, had dinner then a quick nap. I did most of my hair and makeup before heading to the ADC Theatre. The buzz was unreal and everyone looked great in their outfits. Then it was showtime! The theme was dancing through time and I was being the 90s kid which was very suitable. My song was Black or White by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson and I pretty much improvised my through my performance on the night! I had a shoe malfunction where one shoe came loose and after trying to fix it I had to kick it off my foot during my dance. I was also slightly surprised by the song being longer than what it was during rehearsal so I had to somehow muster up more energy to finish the dance. But it was such a great experience and I would love to do it again!

There was my quick overview of my November. How was yours? I can't believe it's almost Christmas time! It snowed here last weekend. It was beautiful! I only have one and a half more days at work to go before the holidays. I hope I shake this cough before then!!!!